Understanding the Zombie Teen's Body Clock

By

Sue Shellenbarger

Updated Oct. 16, 2012 8:40 p.m. ET

Many parents know the scene: The groggy, sleep-deprived teenager stumbles through breakfast and falls asleep over afternoon homework, only to spring to life, wide-eyed and alert, at 10 p.m.—just as Mom and Dad are nodding off.

Fortunately for parents, science has gotten more sophisticated at explaining why, starting at puberty, a teen's internal sleep-wake clock seems to go off the rails. Researchers are also connecting the dots between the resulting sleep loss and behavior long chalked up to just "being a teenager." This includes more risk-taking, less self-control, a drop in school performance and a rise in the incidence of depression.

Few parents realize that the common practice of letting teens set their own bedtime can fuel further mutations in the biological processes that knocked them off track. Sue Shellenbarger and Brown University's Dr. Mary Carskadon discuss details on Lunch Break.

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One 2010 study from the University of British Columbia, for example, found that sleep loss can hamper neuron growth in the brain during adolescence, a critical period for cognitive development.

Findings linking sleep loss to adolescent turbulence are "really revelatory," says Michael Terman, a professor of clinical psychology and psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and co-author of "Chronotherapy," a forthcoming book on resetting the body clock. "These are reactions to a basic change in the way teens' physiology and behavior is organized."

Despite such revelations, there are still no clear solutions for the teen-zombie syndrome. Should a parent try to enforce strict wake-up and bedtimes, even though they conflict with the teen's body clock? Or try to create a workable sleep schedule around that natural cycle? Coupled with a trend toward predawn school start times and peer pressure to socialize online into the wee hours, the result can upset kids' health, school performance—and family peace.

Jeremy Kern, 16 years old, of San Diego, gets up at 6:30 a.m. for school and tries to fall asleep by 10 p.m. But a heavy load of homework and extracurricular activities, including playing saxophone in his school marching band and in a theater orchestra, often keep him up later.

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"I need 10 hours of sleep to not feel tired, and every single day I have to deal with being exhausted," Jeremy says. He stays awake during early-afternoon classes "by sheer force of will." And as research shows, sleep loss makes him more emotionally volatile, Jeremy says, like when he recently broke up with his girlfriend: "You are more irrational when you're sleep deprived. Your emotions are much harder to control."

Only 7.6% of teens get the recommended 9 to 10 hours of sleep, 23.5% get eight hours and 38.7% are seriously sleep-deprived at six or fewer hours a night, says a 2011 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's a biological 1-2-3 punch. First, the onset of puberty brings a median 1.5-hour delay in the body's release of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, says Mary Carskadon, a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Brown University medical school and a leading sleep researcher.

Sleep Tech for Teens

When adolescents stay up late, it's often because they're welded to their gadgets. Here are three that might actually ease their way to dreamland.

Philips Wake-Up Light. Teens could wind down to its gradually dimming evening glow, then awaken to a gradual rise in light and nature sounds— especially good for dark winter mornings. Includes digital clock and AM/FM radio. $100 at amazon.com.

Sleepsonic Stereo Speaker Pillow. With built-in digital stereo speakers, this could help music-loving teens drift off without the discomfort of headphones; $140 and up at sleepsonic.com.

Second, "sleep pressure," or the buildup of the need to sleep as the day wears on, slows during adolescence. That is, kids don't become sleepy as early. This sleep delay isn't just a passing impulse: It continues to increase through adolescence, peaking at age 19.5 in girls and age 20.9 in boys, Dr. Carskadon's research shows.

Finally, teens lose some of their sensitivity to morning light, the kind that spurs awakening and alertness. And they become more reactive to nighttime light, sparking activity later into the evening.

Dr. Carskadon says letting teens set their own schedules can lead to a downward spiral. Teens left to their own devices tend to cycle later, soaking up stimulating light from their computers. This can further delay sleep by 2½ to 3 hours.

Many parents feel defeated by schools' early start times. More than half of public high schools start before 8 a.m., according to a 2011 Brookings Institution study.

Maya Zimmerman's first class is at 7:20 a.m., and "when I wake up in the morning, I literally want to die," says the 16-year-old Falls Church, Va., high-school junior. "I feel like it's the middle of the night and I don't feel like eating cereal." Ms. Zimmerman says she battles fatigue in class and often nods off while doing homework after school.

More than 35 schools or school districts in at least 21 states have delayed start times in recent years to allow teens to sleep longer, according to reports gathered by advocates. In Wake County, N.C., where school start times were changed several times over a seven-year period, a one-hour delay was linked to an increase of three percentile points in middle-school students' math and reading scores, according to a study published earlier this year in the Economics of Education Review.

Many schools, however, have rejected parental pressure to delay school starts, citing bus-cost savings, or the need to keep afternoons open for teens' sports or other activities.

Sleep loss is linked in research to decreases in memory, attention and academic performance. Impaired functioning of the prefrontal cortex, which helps regulate sleep, has been detected in youngsters with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Sleep-deprived teens are more likely to feel sad or hopeless, or to seriously consider suicide, according to a 2011 study by the CDC. A study published earlier this year by Dr. Carskadon and others links sleep deprivation in college freshmen to the expression of genetic factors linked to depression.

Still, most teens resist parents' setting bedtimes. Peer pressure plays a role. Teens with a friend who sleeps less than seven hours a night are 11% more likely to sleep less than seven hours themselves, says a 2010 study in the science journal PLoS One.

Claude Albertario of Oceanside, N.Y., says his 15-year-old daughter Rianna stays up much too late, leaving her TV on through the night, "no matter my yelling." Rianna says she isn't sleepy until after midnight and usually falls asleep at 1 a.m. or 1:30 a.m., just five hours before she has to get up for school. She claims her TV helps her sleep by masking nighttime noises around the house.

An argument that does work with Rianna: Citing research linking sleep loss in teens to obesity and other health problems. Knowing that more sleep will help her keep her skin clear and avoid gaining weight "motivates me more," says Rianna, who is trying gradually to move her bedtime up to midnight.

1) I find it interesting that a reason cited for not starting the school day later is sports. I love sports and find great value in the lessons that can be learned, but the fact that it drives this tells me a lot about parents.2) the solution to the situation with the girl having her TV on all the time is to take the TV out of her room.

I'm an undergrad, I participate in several extra-curricular activities which I hold positions in, I work, and I play hard during my free time. On average, I'm getting about 5-7 hours of sleep on weekdays, and I make up for it with about 7-9 hours on weekends.

Personally speaking, nothing stresses me out more than having to deal with the flood of e-mails I get on a daily basis from school, friends, and work-related items. One element that has severely impacted sleep biology is simply how revolutionary communication has become over the past several years. I don't have to go to my friend's place to talk to him, I can video chat him at 3AM and as long as he has a laptop sitting at his desk, he's there to talk. One of the sacrifices I've noticed as we grow more attached to our technology is that we are allowing ourselves to become more available for the purposes of communication, work, etc.. Sleep has become a commodity.

My way of dealing with this stress is to just remain as active as possible. I've been a life-long tennis player so I try to hit the courts on weekends with friends. During the work week/school week, I'm up early to hit the weights and get my heart rate up. I usually try to limit myself to one cup of coffee on any given day, two only if I'm dying. Also, I try to maintain a very good nutrition -- I cook the majority of my meals.

In the end, I treat my biology as I would any machine. If you want high performance, you have to give it all the right inputs. Fuel (food), conditioning (exercise), and rest are ultimately the drivers of my performance. One of the funniest issues I've noticed as a student is that I do better on exams compared to my peers who decide to study more material at the cost of their sleep. To me, it's economics -- you might have all the information in the world stored in your head, but if you don't set yourself up with the right conditions to access it efficiently when you need that performance, you're shorting yourself out.

In the end, I like to think that my body is a temple and that if I respect it, I'll get the most out of it and accomplish my goals.

Fascinating article, I will definitely share it with my nieces and nephews. Not too many years ago, I, too suffered from this "sleep-deprived teenage" syndrome. What I found was that playing video games, watching TV, and chatting with people who were up all night were primary contributing factos. Also, a lifestyle that was primarily sedentary (class + home) didn't help.

Though--- fortunately, I'd say--- I never suffered from obesity or acne as a result of my sleep deprivation, the psychological effects were evident, and in fact added to the difficulty I had with my ADHD. Of course, I was so caught up with the short-lived enjoyment of chatting with people and playing games that I never considered the long-term implications. In addition, nobody ever explained them to me. As time went on, my dosage of ritalin-type drugs increased and I was ultimately prescribed an anti-depressant to deal with my mood swings and the side effects of the ritalin-type drug.

Starting when I was 16, my parents and I tried a different approach. There was no silver bullet, but rather, several important steps. First, my parents enforced bed times. Second, I began going to bed at 8 (To avoid their complaining) and getting up at 4. I'd be completely alert at 4 (Ironically), and able to knock out my homework, get ready for school, and even fit in some games before the bus came at 6:50. Third, I was given more labor-intensive chores around the house and did physically-intense sports after school, such as track and wrestling. As a result, my grades improved, and I was not sleep-deprived. Wins all around!

My conclusion, years later? First, when a teenager spends his afternoons lazing around the house or chatting at an after-school club, of course they're not going to be tired by 10pm! But if they exercise physically- whether with sports, work, or chores, it's much easier to get to bed earlier.

Second, allowing a kid to go to bed at 1am only makes things worse- their internal clocks re-adjust and make it that much harder to get to bed earlier.

Third, teenagers cannot be allowed to write their own rules- they will ruin themselves. Teenagers might seem anxious to throw off your rules and competant to write their own, but they are not. Do not let up on your parenting just because its the easy thing to do! You're investing in their future! It's worth the work!

All I hear is WAH WAH WAH...We all had to go through it...Kids need to toughen up...Those who keep complaining about the hardships in high school are going to be the same ones that whine about not having a job with their Philosophy Major. We "cradle" our kids enough as it is, this article is garbage ammo for the radical liberal parents who go to PTA meetings...you know who I'm talking about

"Every day in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better be running"

Having raised two girls, I really had to give up on trying to change this behavior and ended up taking a kind of philosophical view of their late night lives for my own sanity. Like seeds that sprout in the dark, they seemed to need to begin their own individual development late at night when parents and other busybodies are asleep and they were free to become their own persons. They could go to late night movies, friends homes, 24 hours restaurant chains and be among their own people, in the new world they were creating free of interference. Happy to say that once they were on their own and working, they got tired at night, woke up like the rest of us, and turned into adults. In my day, I actually had to leave home to do this.

My PhD stepdaughter is a researcher at the Stanford Sleep Research Center in Palo Alto, CA. I'll run this by her and see what she has to say. Hope I can get back in time with her assessment of the article.

My personal estimate is that one's sleep schedule is a very individual thing, but leaving it to chance is not advisable.

My natural "day" length runs more than 25 hours, and changing light conditions, exercise patterns, and everything else I have been able to think of does not change that. All I can do is pick my times for going to bed and getting up, and stay with them. (With due allowance for special events, and extra-long sleep on the weekend if necessary, of course.) Every few weeks, my "time to sleep" arrives at an unwanted hour, and coffee, nicotine, brief periods of exercise, and maybe a much on something sugary help but do not eliminate the problem. (NB: The stimulus of sugar is nice, but also fattening...)

I had an aunt who could not sleep after the break of dawn. She got up, was busy all day, and went to bed early. It worked fine for her, but my attempts to do exactly the same for months at a time failed utterly. We were simply on different styles of internal clock.

Children should be taught at an early age that the ability to sleep, preferably at will, is a good thing. Praise them for sleeping at times appropriate. But if they cannot do it (e.g. some children simply cannot nap during "nap time" in kindergarter), try to find some means to achieve a workable schedule.

Best of luck to those who like me do not have an internal clock that can easily be adjusted to the demands of our highly-scheduled lives. They will need it, in addition to a sizable amount of self-discipline.

Teenagers are growing at a pace rivaled by their first growing years; and babies sleep all the time. Not only do they not get enough sleep, as life makes, again, unprecedented social demands on them, they also do not eat enough or well enough. A teen designed vitamin is in order, but none of the companies I've written about this demographic, surely a bountiful one for them, have written back confirming my suspicions. I suspect, like other companies to which I've submitted ideas, they will wait until they think I've forgotten and then come out with the product I suggested. Oh well. The fact remains that they need boosts designed for them, before they resort to caffeine. They need protein rich super snacks they can carry around, and of course, more sleep.

I could care less about their sleep habits, someone please tell my why they are so clueless, lazy, and just indifferent when it comes to common sense. Why is every little thing thing a crisis to them, except for what they need to get upset about? Why is it they will refuse advice from older people who have already gone through everything they are going through? Why is it they absolutely have to make a mistake on their own, and not learn from the mistakes of others? Why is it they they will show off their stupidity, but suppress their intelligence? If there ever was a need for a study on kids, this would be the first place to start. Most everyone in the country is sleep deprived, we already know that. Do a study that is worthwhile. I suppose every generation asks these same questions, but has anyone really looked at the problem? If so what is the answer to these question?

Moreover, I believe this article speaks much to the "delayed development" we're seeing in so many young adults... particularly with lower test schools, poorer college performance, delayed onset of adulthood, and a whole host of other societal issues.

If I may elaborate on my previous post... I did very well in school following the adjusted lifestyle. Unfortunately, when I went back to college, I lost the after-school sports and 4am homework and, well, settled back into my old ways. I stayed up late playing games and chatting to girls (MMORPGs were becoming mainstream by then), and my grades plummeted. I was staying up til 1am and kind of actually... regressing a bit.

Nevertheless, I stumbled through school- but I only had a 3.1 GPA in a very easy degree and I was a lousey employee. I also continued staying up until 1, 2am and getting insufficient sleep. That's the thing, see, this sleep deprivation doesn't just stop when you graduate... it can continue for years. It wasn't until I got in a car accident (sleep deprivation had led to chronic migraines) that I re-evaluated my life choices.

I began getting to bed between 9 and 10, waking up at 5. The results became evident over the following 2 years. I became a much better employee, my work and family relationships improved. My social interactions improved, and I became more responsible and mature. In other words, I didn't really become an "adult" until I got my sleep schedule in order. A little ironic?

I can attest to the fact that many 20-30 year-olds are still sleep-deprived, or still have that "teenage" biological clock. I can also attest to the fact that many of my peers... in that age group... still get to bed at 2 or 3 and wake up at 9 or 10... or maybe noon or 1pm. In other words, the onset of their "adulthood" has been delayed... and this article convinces me that it may have something to do with sleep. I hope they research more into this subject...

Being overweight and the modern general sedentary life style in my view is key. What is colloquially known as couch potato has a hard time sleeping. Exercise them hard and they will sleep better. In the end however, teenagers will be teenagers.

Teenagers in year-around competitive swimming seem to have no problem with sleep loss or their internal clock. Swimming forces a disciplined schedule, and the kids are physically exhausted and have no problem falling asleep by 9:30 or 10:00. Obviously, most kids are not goiing to want to be competitive swimmers, but perhaps regular exercise of any kind can help keep their internal clocks on schedule.

I've read several studies along these lines, but can't help but wondering what my grandparents reaction would have been if someone told them that my father's internal clock had shifted and that the optimal time for farm chores was later in the day. I imagine that they would have chuckled and said something like 'well, he'd better shift it back.' For centuries teens worked the same hours as adults and somehow they survived. I think they can make it in the 21st century as well.

Although "biological clocks" can play a part, this problem is primarily related to the "biosphere" created for kids in their bedrooms. They have TV, computer, telephone, food, drink, and often toilet all to themselves. The parents cannot control the kids' use of any of this, try as they may. All the kid's friends are staying up till 2 am sending text messages, video chat, and FaceBook stuff. They sacrifice sleep for socializing. If they don't join in, they not only miss out on the excitement, but also may lose a bf or gf to the competition. We need only watch "Jaywalking" on the old Tonight Show with Leno to see the results. "Where do you find the Great Wall of China?" "Hmm... most likely China." "OK, where would you find the Panama Canal?" "China?"

I'm surprised as to why the author neglects the single most important aspect of adolescent's life: Create a virtual world of their own online. Also, with the advent of more and more computer games, servers of which are more active late in the night, it's all the more evident why teens prefer the privacy of their own at night.

My 15 year old daughter is having issues with sleep. She complains that she cannot fall asleep at a "reasonable" hour and when she does fall asleep, she feels as though she does get into a deep enough sleep to help her feel rested. She has a terrible time waking up, although our school district has our high school start just before 8 am and middle school at 9am (which is wonderful). We are at our wits end as she complains of inability to concentrate and low energy levels. This article was very helpful in the sense that it made me feel like we were not alone and that this is somewhat normal for teens. We have resorted to her taking Melatonin and tylenol pm at night to try to get her to sleep earlier. We are evaluating this approach to see if it works for the time being although I do not like to have to depend on medication to help her sleep at age 15. Does anyone have any insight on this?

Maybe it's self selection, but we had a very high achieving cohort on our high school swim team. AM workout at 5:30, School start at 7:30 AM, PM practice 2:30 - 5, Food, Homework till 9, Sleep (Quickly - pretty tired by then) ...... Repeat. See the same thing now in my 50's at morning practice with our masters group as the high schoolers come in to workout. Hard work, self discipline .... seems to be a winning combination. Lots of engineers, scientists, physicians, dentists, lawyers, entrepeneurs came out of these groups then and now. As parents, I often think we don't expect or insist on enough. I don't mean the overscheduled and overcommitted kids created by hyperparenting, but an insistence that those things you do participate in will be met with full effort.

One comment about gadgets - When I talk to the cross country teams, I hold up my pager issued by our hospital system. I remind them that if they become slaves to their gadgets, they accept voluntarily a degree of intrusion in their life that most rational adults would expect a mid six figure salary to tolerate. A small number get the point.

As a parent with 2 boys who are chronically sleep deprived due to their school’s 7:10 start time – I appreciate this article. My husband and I are good responsible parents with great kids. Our boys go to bed early without their electronic gadgets – yet toss and turn well into the night. They never get enough sleep. There is ONE reason why my kids are sleep deprived – their high school’s 7:10 start time. Early school start times are very bad for the health and well-being of our nation’s children. My boys are living proof. I must also say that young Maya’s comment about wanting to die brings tears to my eyes. Her comment is terribly sad and should not be dismissed. We buried my son’s best friend 2 weeks ago due to suicide. He was 18 and we will always be haunted by thoughts of “what if…”

As a teenage myself i certainly agree with this article. Although I do maintain self control so i fall asleep at 11:20 or so. But just like one teen mentioned here, i wake up at 6:25 in the morning. I certainly do battle fatigue later and become more awake in hours at odd with my parents, but i control it to make it bearable. The main thing for teens is just self control, just like all the drug, alcohol and other problems that rack us.

This article completely glosses over the important facts: kids need to be allowed to go to bed and get up at later times. Whatever excuses the schools are using for denying a humane and safe school start schedule should not be any concern of the parents or the kids. I find it hard to believe that "keeping times open for sports" is even legally allowed to trump the basic health needs of the students.

Even the author commits the same sin, admitting that the girl in the article cannot get to sleep until late and then launching a discussion of which "arguments" work to get her to bed earlier. One does not "argue" with human biology. To be truly helpful the article should be addressing legal options for parents whose kids are being physically abused by their schools, and for kids who are being similarly abused by their parents in collusion with the schools.

A much-needed article about teens not getting enough sleep! Researchers found that 20 percent of all high school students fall asleep in school (Maas, 1995) and that the symptoms of sleep deprivation are worse in earlier starting schools (Allen, 1991). There's a move on to have later starting times for high schools because of this growing problem. There was a Minnesota study of 7,000 teenagers that revealed students in schools that switched starting time to 8:40 a.m. from 7:15 were less sleepy during the day, earned slightly higher grades and had fewer depressive feelings and behaviors. I wrote an article on teen sleep deprivation and offer it free to WSJ readers.

I think when expectations are clear and kids have their priorities straight, they can be surprisingly flexible, capable and responsible. And I think the teen years are a pretty good time to learn first-hand that the world will not easily bend to your personal needs or desires, no matter how many studies you cite.

Let's make decisions for our kids based on what we know today about the importance of nutrition, exercise, and adequate sleep.

We now know that adolescents and teens have different sleep schedules and needs than younger children and different schedules and needs than adults. If we want our kids to be healthy, now and for life, we need to take this seriously. Why are we still bragging about how "back in the day, I chased the DDT truck and look at me, I'm just fine"? Our generation is plagued with heart disease, diabetes, anxiety, depression and a host of other health problems.

We need to change our education system so that it works with our kids' biological needs and set them up for success and a healthy lifestyle. The best "training" for their future careers would have to be an excellent education. Schools that have shifted to later start times have more alert students and are seeing the payoff in terms of attendance, behavior and performance. This is a serious consideration as we evaluate the success of our education system.

www.startschoollater.net is a volunteer, grass-roots group concerned with raising awareness about the issue of sleep deprivation in our high-schoolers and why we need to make this change happen now for the sake of health, safety and equity in education. We've collected research, documented success stories, and connected with communities across the country who are working toward the same goal.

It's great to see a serious discussion about the importance of sleep for mental and physical wellbeing in the WSJ. As the author points out, there are significant and serious links between adolescent sleep deprivation and obesity, risky behavior, suicidal ideation, and even cardiovascular risk. None of us wants these things for our children.

Although my grandpa -- a farmer -- also would have chuckled at the idea that it would be good for a teenager to sleep beyond dawn when possible, he also would have scoffed at buckling up whenever he got in a car, or not smoking around his grandkids. Car seats for babies and toddlers? Avoiding alcohol in pregnancy? Something besides bacon and eggs for breakfast? All laughable at the time.

Now, we know enough to realize that a teen's developing body and brain need enough sleep, and at the right time. Turn off the TV? Sure. Take away the cell phone? If you need to, fine. But as long as we're kicking our kids out the door for buses that come as early as 5:50 am (no lie!), they'd have to be tucked in, lights out, sound asleep by 8 pm to get the 9-10 hours their pediatrician recommends. Fat chance.

We're all paying to transport and teach classrooms full of teenage zombies. Starting school a little later would be a great place to start fixing this.

Simple, no control anymore for parents, IF THEY KNOW who their parent or parents are and social media, don't need to talk just text and play games, WHALA another Idiot hits the street, and that college degree doesn't mean SQUADUSH ! As for Phyllis go read another Dr. Phil book !

My parents set a regular time for me to be asleep at each age as I grew up and I did with my kids. It works. Once again, parents matter. However, I also held down a full time job from 5 pm to midnight 5 nights a week and all day Saturday, starting as a sophomore in high school and my class days were from 7:30 am - 4:15 pm in order to complete the required pre college program. But again, this was 45 years ago when many kids I knew worked at least part time if not full time and school was considered a full time job you took seriously.

There are clear solutions. Research has shown that students sleep more when they have a schedule that is in sync with their body clocks. We also know (from the research) that sleep hygiene is important. We need a two-pronged approach to solve this public health crisis.

School policies should be designed to work for the learners, especially given the important role that sleep plays in creating memories. There are some high schools that start at 9:00 a.m. and have always done so. There are other high schools that have shifted to later in the morning to improve teen sleep, health, and learning.

The students who attend these high schools do sleep more than students with very early school schedules and the many benefits have been documented. The debate is over and it is time to change policies.

Early schedules for adolescents are like shift work in adults and there are all kinds of negative health consequences that come from shift work. We are learning about these and we certainly know that subjecting a child who is still growing and developing to 'shift work' is unacceptable. Sleep experts compare waking a teen at 7 a.m. to waking an adult at 4 a.m., and sadly, many high school students are waking closer to 5 a.m. to catch buses that begin picking students up at 5:45 AM (in our county for a 7:20 AM start). 5:45 AM! At one point, the first pick-up was at 5:21 AM. If parents weren't pushing for healthier start times, who knows how early these pick-up times would become?

Parents and students also need to recognize the importance of sleep and make it a priority by creating a relaxing bedtime routine that allows for about 9 hours of time to sleep. With wake times of 7 or 8 AM, students would have to be in bed by 10 or 11 PM. These are times that can work. Expecting an adolescent to be able to fall asleep at 8 PM for a 5 AM alarm, is like asking them to bench press 1,000 pounds -- it's physically not possible for most of them.

If the child is suffering health consequences due to the lack of sleep, the parents (you know, the responsible party) need to work with the child to modify the classes if excessive home work every night and weekend is the problem. If too many activities are the cause of too many late nights,the parents need to help the child decide which are activites need to stay and which ones need to go. If the parents do not model this behavior and self-care/control, where do you expect the child to get it from? No electronics in room, either! No TV, cell phone, computer, etc. Two brothers died in a car wreck here in 2010 b/c the driver fell asleep on the way to school. My friend's DD told me that the older boy routinely stayed up til 2am online. Classes start here at 7:40am. I could not function like that. Can most people?

As parents, it is too easy to say that the kid is a teenager so they are in charge of their schedules. Not! Our home network gets switched-off at 10:30 and gadgets left downstairs. If the teens need computer access for homework after that, they have to go to the main, hard-wired machine. They seem to manage to get internet stuff done before 10:30 most of the time.

Sports helps, too. It gets them tired physically so that they want to sleep early. A really successful night for them is to get homework done early, shower and get to bed by 10. Their school helps by having a block schedule and requiring a collaboration period (read study hall) several times/week at the end of the day. Parents are still in charge - do the hard work and make them go to bed and turn off the electronics!

Part of the problem is TV in the bedroom, an I-phone and a computer that the kid is allowed to use without supervision. Some of these kids are up half the night texting, going on Facebook, watching TV. No wonder they can't sleep. The school hours are too early and they get out of school too early in the afternoon. I, too, went to school back when it started at 9, but of course we didn't have but one TV (in the living room), no computers or cell phones. There was one landline phone (in the hall where everyone could hear conversations). The girl who says she has to have her TV on to mask other noise in the house should try a fan (and get the TV out of the room). If it is light sensitivity that causes some people sleep problems, then put on a mask or get shades that cut out the light.

When I went to public school in Brooklyn, graduated H.S. in 1958, school was from 9am-3pm. Kids from my school years are incredibly successful schievers in their chosen fields, arts, medicine, business, etc. Now, I see school kids on the street at 2pm, or 2:30pm having just been dismissed after starting at some ungodly hour even before 8am. If I had to eat cereal and be mentally alert at 7am I would never have wanted to go to school either.

Bobby, here's some insight: If you believe this article was so "enlightening" then you have larger parenting issues than drugging your daughter to sleep every night. We all went through our teenage years and remember what a volatile time it was. I remember my parents resorted to the "go to sleep' method, and if I didn't I would feel like garbage the next day. Don't ignore the issue, address the issue.

From an evolutionary biology standpoint, the article is hogwash. What did we do before external sources of light? One got up with the sun and went to sleep after the sun went down. When we just had fire, did the kids stay up late keeping the fire going? The old New England saying that it is dark under the table is just one vestige. Our modern life changed all that. When backpacking with kids in wilderness areas, they go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Absolutely on target, Jen. As an historian of medicine, I can tell you that it's very common for people to "blame the victim" for problems that later turn out to be controllable through public health and other societal measures. Even a disease like typhoid fever was attributed to immorality before we figured out we needed to clean up the water supplies. Yes, of course, absurdly early school hours are not the only factor in teen sleep deprivation, but the research is crystal clear that they play a major role, and that when start times are moved back, teens get significantly more sleep. The problem isn't lack of evidence, but lack of will, especially on the part of people who dismiss the need for sleep as a sign of moral and physical weakness. For more on this topic, and efforts to address the problem, see www.StartSchoolLater.net, a grassroots coalition working to ensure school hours compatible with healthy, safety, equity, and learning.

Thanks for that site about later starting times. With so many students working after school, then arriving home to study until late at night on school days, it is a great idea. Robert at Family Journalwww.familyjournal1.blogspot.com

Thirty years ago I got up at 5:30-6 am, had classes at high school in the mornings, at a junior college in the evenings Tues & Thursday. I worked 3-11 pm on Mon & Wednesday, & 7a-3pm on Sat. and Sunday. Yes, I got tired at times but once I hit the sheets I was out. Whether I got the right amount of sleep or not, I don't know. But I did my thing. To this day, I can set my clock a different way every few days as needed. Which is great when you are an RN who prefers nights. So are today's kids going to college and off to jobs only to scurry back home when the boss or professor laughs when they try to explain their uncontrollable body clocks and that legged last night. My parents let me go to late night events on school nights as a high schooler with the understanding that the 1st time one of my parents had to wake me up the next morning, I would never go out late on a school night again living in their house. I always got up.

All wonderful suggestions and combined with an 8:30 or 9:00 AM school start time, 10:30 lights out is just about perfect. Combined with a 6:00 AM bus time, 10:30 to 5:00ish sleep opportunity is short by about 2 or 3 hours of required sleep. Of course, your family may be among the fortunate ones that have healthy school schedules already. Parents in districts with 8:30 or 9:00 AM school start times for high schools tell me that the schedule is fantastic.

It's the bus fleet availability that partly drives the school schedule.

If you went to school in a city you could walk or ride transit.

In rural and suburban areas (or areas with forced busing) the bus fleet must transport kids in 3 shifts = HS, Middle School and Elem School - then transport in shifts again in the afternoon. So they leave the first stops at 6:30 AM.

Geraldo, I do not agree. Fifty years ago both I and my friends kept regular sleep schedules on school nights. I was in bed well before midnight and up before 7 am without difficulty. I question whether scientists studying the sleep physiology of today's teens are examining a sample that has already been "contaminated" by social factors.

Ditto for 40 years ago. Lights out at our (upper-middle class suburban) house at 11. No TV in room (and none of my friends had one, either). No TV until homework was done. On rare occasions, I might have stayed up later working on a school project--but I always had to explain how, if the project wasn't done, I'd watched TV earlier in the week . . .

I find it hard to believe that kids with access to devices all the time don't just stay up later and still not get adequate sleep. To my knowledge, sleep before midnight is the best most healing, repairing sleep you get. Has that been disproved?

Aaah yes... the old "these darn kids are too pampered" argument. I'm assuming that most of the posters here are Boomers (the single WORST generation in America), who had things significantly easier than their depression-era parents.

As a Millenial (28 years old) who has done fairly well, comments like this from Boomers are kind of funny and kind of make me angry. Kind of funny because I do OK, but kind of make me angry when I see my friends who were studious, academic, and did all the "right things" being relegated to jobs that they are underpaid and overqualified for, because they had the misfortune of graduating college in 2007 - 2009, into an economic calamity caused by the greed of members of the Baby Boomer generation.

My advice to the worst generation of Americans would be to save the holier than thou talk. If it wasn't for legions of Boomers treating their houses like ATM machines so they could buy a powerboat, or incompetently running the largest financial institutions and taking on undue risk so they could get a fat bonus, we wouldn't be in this mess.If you are a member of the Greatest Generation you are free to lecture.

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